Eva Longoria Calls Out Hollywood for Unfair Treatment

Eva Longoria is speaking out against Hollywood as she makes her feature directorial debut with "Flamin' Hot."

The "Desperate Housewives" alum placed the spotlight on unfair treatment and unequal opportunities in the industry during an interview with Variety, and while delivering a talk at the Kering Women in Motion at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival

Speaking as a female director, a first-time director and a Latina director, Longoria said Hollywood does not play fairly.

"We don't get a lot of bites at the apple," Longoria said about Latina directors. "My movie wasn't low budget by any means — it wasn't $100 million, but it wasn't $2 million. When was the last Latina-directed studio film? It was like 20 years ago. We can't get a movie every 20 years."

Longoria continued: "The problem is if this movie fails, people go, 'Oh, Latino stories don't work … female directors really don't cut it.' We don't get a lot of at-bats. A white male can direct a $200 million film, fail and get another one. That's the problem. I get one at-bat, one chance, work twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as cheap."

Longoria said that as a result, "You really carry the generational traumas with you into the making of the film. ... For me, it fueled me. I was determined."

Longoria said statistics show that Hollywood is failing with inclusion.

"We're still underrepresented in front of the camera, we're still underrepresented behind the camera, we're still not tapping into the females of the Latino community," Longoria said. "We were at 7% in TV and film, now we're at 5%, so the myth that Hollywood is so progressive is a myth when you look at the data."

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